Blog: Sharing NEWS & PERSPECTIVES

Stay up to date with the latest news and information on California higher education. Plus, blogs that are unabashedly pro-higher education, offering what you need to know to be a passionate advocate for our colleges and universities.

LA Times Endorsement: Yes on Proposition 13 for school upgrades

California schools already are underfunded compared with other states. The minimum that voters can do is ensure that students attend schools that are safe and modern, reflecting California’s commitment to education, perhaps the state’s most important investment.

Op-Ed: Vote Yes on Prop 13 For Safer Schools

Posted on February 12th, 2020 at 12:00am UTC

On February 9, 2020, the UCSF Synapse published an op-ed by Benjamin Adam Catching, vice president of External Affairs- Graduate Representative for the Graduate Professional Student Association (GPSA), and Sharleen Gill, vice president of External Affairs- Professional Representative for GPSA, titled, “Vote Yes on Prop 13 For Safer Schools.” Here’s an excerpt:

A safe and modern classroom to learn in is the bare minimum. These changes require a lot of money, highlighting the severity of the problem. Many have endorsed it, including the San Francisco Chronicle.

In addition, Proposition 13 will provide $9 billion to remove mold and asbestos from buildings, ensure clean drinking water sources, and make sure pre-K-12 schools are safe. Who could say that these improvements are not necessary for the children in this state?

Investing in the higher public education infrastructure is not an option for California, it is a necessity. As the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) noted, the retirement of the baby boomers represents the first time in California’s history that such a large and well-educated generation is exiting the labor force.

Their exodus from the workforce is the main reason the PPIC said the state will need 1.1 million more graduates with bachelor’s degrees in the next 10 years than are expected to graduate now. But meeting employers’ demand for educated workers will be challenging in California’s aging public higher education systems. Nearly 60% of the UC’s public buildings are more than 30 years old, with 42% of that space built between 1950 and 1980. In CSU, half the space is 40 years or older, and a third is more than 50 years old.

So if we wish to have the educated workforce keep the economy strong, we need to be sure we’re registered to vote and then vote yes on Prop. 13.

From the flooded apartments at Marshall Lower Apartments to the daily struggle for students in wheelchairs to make their way throughout campus, we can all see the need for improvements here at UC San Diego. Our university faces the same challenges as all the state’s public four-year universities and colleges: Older buildings and too little money to maintain and update them.

Letter to the Editor: To Fix Our Campus, Please Vote for Prop 13 on March 3

Posted on February 8th, 2020 at 1:28am UTC

On January 28, 2020, UC Santa Barbara’s Daily Nexus published a letter to the editor from Kaitlyn Medland, coordinator of Fund the UC Campaign in the Office of the External Vice President of Statewide Affairs at UC Santa Barbara, titled, “To Fix Our Campus, Please Vote for Prop 13 on March 3.” Here’s an excerpt:

“If you have trudged up multiple flights of stairs due to broken elevators, lived with three people in a dorm room built for two or struggled to get some outdated piece of equipment to work in a lab, you’ve seen evidence of the lack of funding for the upkeep of our campus and accommodation of our growing student population. UC Santa Barbara is, like all of the state’s four-year public universities and colleges, strapped for the funds needed to keep its aging buildings, dorms and equipment up to date and to provide adequate housing for its students.”

“In fall, UC Berkeley conducted a seismic assessment of its buildings — and the results were, well, shaky. The assessment found that 68 UC Berkeley buildings posed a “serious” or “severe” risk to life. Many of these buildings are a second home to us students: the Cesar E. Chavez Student Center, Doe Memorial Library, Sproul Hall, Valley Life Sciences Building, Zellerbach Hall and Evans Hall.

“Even at the nation’s top public university, campus spaces are not always top-notch. From broken desks to leaky pipes, inaccessible classrooms to routine flooding, it’s easy to see how UCLA is buckling under the strain of being the second-oldest and most populous University of California campus in the system.”

Proposition 13 would spend $15B on California schools

Proposition 13, the only statewide measure on the March 3 ballot, would create a $15 billion bond to build, repair and modernize schools, from kindergarten through public colleges and universities.

Many school districts, like West Contra Costa, say they do not receive adequate state funding to make repairs and fully modernize their buildings, leading to a “Band-Aid approach” of repairs atop repairs and deferred maintenance that was on full view during a recent tour of Lake elementary in San Pablo.

Most of the money from the proposed bond — $9 billion — would go to K-12 schools, with priority given to addressing health and safety concerns, including earthquake risks and removing toxic mold and asbestos from aging classrooms and lead from drinking water. Of that, $5.8 billion would go to updating school facilities, followed by $2.8 billion for new construction and $500 million each for charter schools and facilities for technical education.

It also would put an end to the first-come, first-served process of allocating funds that critics say has favored richer districts, which often have special staff or can hire consultants to focus on funding applications. The new system would set aside 10% of state money for districts with fewer than 2,500 students and give up to 5% more of state matching money to low-income districts.

San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board: Yes on California Prop. 13

On January 26, 2020, the San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Board published an editorial titled, “Yes on California Prop. 13.” Here’s an excerpt:

The only statewide measure on the March 3 primary is a $15 billion bond to build and repair schools, from kindergarten through its public colleges and universities.

Proposition 13, given the size of the bond and the importance of education to California’s future, merits a close look.

The need across the state is widespread, but it is not evenly distributed. Anyone who has visited a variety of campuses, at any level, know there are examples of both impressive facilities and buildings and classrooms that are suffering from years of neglect. Disparities in the quality and safety of learning environments are among the issues that this measure, put on the ballot by the California Legislature, tries to address. It simplifies the application process — a particular concern for smaller districts with less administrative support — with a formula designed to send the greatest resources to those serving the students with the most challenges.

As Tony Wold, an associate superintendent for the West Contra Costa Unified School District, put it, the allocation favors “districts with the most need, not the most lobbyists.”

The editorial concludes:

A well-educated workforce is essential to California’s future economy — and bringing the state’s many substandard school facilities is critical to creating a learning environment. This is a big investment, but it is a wise investment.

For more than a century, Californians invested in a public higher education system that was the envy of the world. But in the subsequent decades, economic pressures led to declining investments in this system. In 2008, as the state’s economy plummeted and the nation entered the Great Recession, California’s investments in public higher education nosedived, causing a backlog of deferred maintenance at the University of California, California State University and community colleges.